DJS: MOST CHARTED - MINIMAL / TECH - MOST CHARTED IN MAY 2014

Review: Canadian violinist Owen Pallett lends a hand to Dan 'Caribou / Daphni' Snaith on this latest bout of rootsy grooves for his more club ready venture, and the results are rather startling. "Julia" rides on a bumping drum beat that sounds as though it were fashioned out of solid oak, while Pallett's string chops come in dramatic side strokes to add a sense of danger to an already tense situation. "Tiberius" meanwhile has a more techno-orientated outlook, while the strings this time come in nerve-shredding discordant formations that conjure up a fire-and-brimstone party scenario for the more apocalyptically minded dancer.

Review: With last year's long-overdue debut album for Smallville Records still on rotation here at Juno HQ, Steven Tang returns to the Hamburg institution for a follow up entitled Leaving The Physical World. Building on the masterful approach to deep house seen on Disconnect to Connect, the Hong Kong native delivers three nuanced productions that show the skills he's been honing for many years. The percussive bump and complex chord arrangement of the title track are finely complemented by the searching shamanic house of "Mystic Ritual" and melancholic soundscape of "Reality We Make", each of which are as deceptively complex as anything Joey Anderson has been putting out of late.

Review: Phoenix G reaches its 50th release in its fifteenth year of business and finds Colin McBean in irrepressible form on this Long Time Coming EP! Should you want some compelling evidence for why so many people regard Mr G as one of the most distinctive production voices amongst the UK house and techno cognoscenti, spend some time with the four tracks here. Lead track "Mandiba" is machine Funk at its most potent, whilst the functional drums of "Distortion (Rita's Soul)" have to contend with the soulful impact of the tear jerking vocal hook and that resonant, earthy synth line. "Zam Zam" is Martian techno at its most sinister, whilst the Mango Boys Red Eye mix of "Where I Feel It Most" is a simple yet very effective DJ tool.

Review: Three years on from his debut album Stone Breaker, Mark E returns with a second long player for Ghostly offshoot Spectral Sound that finds the house producer look to his homeland for inspiration. Product Of Industry takes it's name from Evetts upbringing in the UK industrial heartland of the West Midlands, and how the current global financial situation led to him losing his job, an occurrence which resulted in Mark E the producer "Here I am, a product of industry, both currently and historically" as the producer himself has stated. Musically, the nine tracks offer a considered development from Evetts debut album, and suggest he's eminently comfortable working within the confines of the all analogue hardware used to create Product Of Industry.

Review: Absent from the Perlon release schedule since contributing A Cat Called Mice back in 2011, Amsterdam's resident Doctor San Proper returns to Zip and Markus Nikolai's cultish label with Yestoday. The three tracks here continue where San Proper left off with is recent Pet = Master EP for Arma, with the title track one of the funkiest tracks committed to the Perlon catalogue in some time. The DJ tool "Drop & Run" could easily work its way into a straight up house set, though it's still got plenty of those production idiosyncrasies one expects from San Proper, speaking of which "Burn for Love" is positively filled with them. The only question that remains is who is going to helm Perlon 100?

Review: In the same week that Dominick Martin graces The Nothing Special with some fine Calibre produce, Craig Richards label demonstrate the diversity of their approach with a record from Mr Neville Watson. If you have invested any time with house music over the past few years, there should be little in the way of encouragement needed to spend some time with this Red Light Fever 12", which displays the depth of Watson's production palette across three certified jams. The title track is doused in hardware quirkiness, operating with a feel and tempo that will suit warm up sets, especially with the laser precision expansive synth lines. "The Raw Fruit" continues in the same techno focused direction Watson explored on last year's DBA Special Editions release, whilst the emotionally loaded "Heartstring" is a perfect example of the adage "saving the best til last"

Review: Hailing from sunny Los Angeles, Plastic Love Records kicks off our first release with an EP from label co-boss Jimmy Maheras. Maheras made his debut in 2011 with his Space Jam EP on the Crosstown Rebels edit sub-label, Rebellion. Since then he's released remixes and singles on Strainjjur, Riff Raff, Supernature, and Left'd.

Maheras's two original tracks showcase his depth with The Man From Another Place being squarely aimed at the big room dance floor and the second track, Arecibo, bringing a little Kraftwerkesque funk. We've commissioned Timothy J Fairplay (Crimes Of The Future) and Cottam (Aus Music / Ruff Draft) for two very unique remixes. Fairplay crunches down the original melody and throws it over the famed amen break to give TMFAP a hands in air late night feel while Cottam's remix brings the dreamy melody closer to acid with storming late night kick ready to knock down a wall.

Review: REPRESS ALERT!: Trelik returns with a repackaged edition of one of the catalogue's most treasured releases. "Overcome" and "Lady Science (NYC Sunrise)" need little introduction, and now come sporting the new TR11:11 matrix number. Written and produced by Thomas Melchior and Baby Ford aka Soul Capsule, these tracks came from one of the many sessions recorded at the West London Ifach Studio in 1999. On the A Side "Overcome" is stripped back and energetic, driven by rolling and shuffling garage style beats, tight bubbling bass and atmospheric synth pads. The intermittent vocal samples and the release's signature organ set you up for the flip, "Lady Science (NYC Sunrise)". Possibly one of house music's most emotive pieces, the track builds slowly with the introduction of each part building a story of soulful optimism based around a sparse palette of deep synths, uplifting keys and warm analogue bass. The understated beauty of the main vocal riff never seems to grow old or tired with the track lending itself perfectly to either main room, peak-time play or after-hours sessions alike. Remastered by Rashad at D & M.

Review: Under the Petre Inspirescu guise, Bucharest based DJ and producer Radu Dumitru Bodiu has built a reputation for intricate, minimal house across numerous 12" releases over the past few years. It was little surprise when fabric invited him to contribute to their long running mix series last year with the resultant fifteen track set filled with unreleased material, adding further credence to the notion that Inspirescu is a bit of a demon at production. Surfacing on mule musiq is pleasantly surprising - the label claim to be massive fans of the Romanian - and the Talking Waters 12" is likely to introduce Inspirescu's typically understated, hypnotic minimal house to a wider audience.

Review: The Cubo Rhythm Trax 12? sees the Versatile stalwart end nearly two years of radio silence in style, with inspiration coming from Jive Rhythm Trax's Volume 2, an eight-track tape of electro first released in 1989. Named after their BPMs like the original, I:Cube's techno-take on these retro productions also come with a throbbing Pilooski edit of "Makossa Suspens" taken from the producer's "M" Megamix album from 2012, which although unrelated to Jive, provides a complimenting bonus to two jangly, metallic, tribal drum tracks.

Review: Nomadic London events crew Half Baked settled nicely into life as a record label last year, issuing 12"s from Birdsmakingmachine and Mike Shannon after launching with a split release featuring Le Loup , Yakine and Seuil. There's a sense of expectation surrounding the label then, and it's nice to see standards maintained on their first release of 2014, with Italian DJ and producer Enrico Mantini behind the buttons. There's a sense of pedigree that comes with Mantini, who has been producing since the early '90s and his class shines through on the three productions on Overflowing, with "Low End Walker" a considered highlight.

Review: With their debut year already witnessing their fourth release, Dilated Pupils are clearly onto a good thing. Following on from the excellent 241020 EP on Mode Of Expression, this latest 12" on Sol Asylum features more soul-dipped minimal house rhythms for the ethereal heads out there. "Lost Evidence" has a purposeful shuffle to it, but the real star is the thick swathe of pad that drifts through the track. "Alco B" meanwhile features a rougher broken beat that meets with heavy-lidded melodic matter, before Birdsmakingmachine remix the track into an even more hypnotic micro-breakbeat tryst. "Broken Amp" finishes the EP off with a set of barely-there drums and epic strokes of chord.

Review: You can always count on Minibar to bring the shuffliest, twitchiest end of the micro-house spectrum, and in Vedren & Leiris they have found a pair of likeminded Frenchmen to help them further their funky intentions. "Procrastination" sports a heavily swung beat that's busy and stripped down in the same breath, with some oddball slices of vocal hopping around the mix for decoration. "Anytime But Later" is marginally tougher in its demeanour, but the same rules of lean mean rhythmic business remains, heading deep into the details and maximizing on the space around the sounds.

Review: After the success of their Innervisions and Life and Death releases, Lithuanian duo Ten Walls set themselves up for a hat trick with the rousing tones of this EP for new label BOSO. The title track in particular tugs at the emotional nerves via a powerful line in orchestral strings, replete with a sturdy rhythmic backbone and some accompanying horn parps that add to the epic feel of the tune. On the flip, "Nochony Dozor" opts for a more heated concoction of synths that range from rotating sirens to washing pads, with a looming bass tone underpinning the action and spelling out the melodic end of proceedings.

Review: Ibiza based imprint Fathers & Sons brings back label boss Julian Perez to deliver the second installment in his FAS007 series, serving up two tracks that highlight the ever deepening sound of the producer. "Reef" is a taut and muscular tech house cut that packs a touch of New Jersey swing but decorates it with immersive dub styles that send it to a more contemplative headspace, and the results are a club ready workhorse that punches in all the right places. "111" is a more daring affair that spends a great deal of time in a fragmented found sound space before the argpeggiated bass line propels the track towards a floor-ready structure.

Review: Over the course of eight years, Bristol party Just Jack have showcased the best in house and techno so you wonder why it's taken them so long to decide to expand operations and launch their own label. Regardless of the reasons, Just Jack show they mean business here in handing duties for the inaugural release to Dutch pair Beesmunt Soundsystem. David Van Der Leeuw and Luigi Vittorio Jansen made all the right noises with the pair of 12" released on Soweso a few years back, but The Baby Maker EP shows they've stepped up their productions a notch or two. Lead track "Close To Me" is an opulent blend of course and forceful drums, sultry vocals and irresistibly effective bass grooves, whilst "How I Wish" shows off their more soulful side. Do not sleep on the self styled Body To Body Deep Dark Excursion remix from Amir Alexander that grips the B Side!

Review: French veteran Chris Carrier first released material on Adult Only way back in 2000, and has made regular appearances on the label ever since. Here, he delivers his 11th EP for the imprint, offering up a pair of impressive collaborations in his trademark hazy, intoxicated, tech-tinged deep house style. There's a toasty warmth and impressive swing to the bouncing Hector Moralez hook-up "Galactical Dance Mate", which makes great use of sampled clarinets, far-sighted chords and barely audible vocal samples. Djebali provides the obligatory remix, turning the original into a Rbsoul style tech-house roller. Arguably even better is Carrier and Djebali's "BattleStar", a formidably percussive sprint into heavily percussive late night tech-house territory.

Review: Surfacing from somewhere in the Russian Federation, Gost Zvuk Records live up to their name's rough translation of Ghost Sounds on the basis of this debut release from newcomer Aleksei Nikitin. There's versatility to Nikitin's productions here that will serve him well, with the taut, subtle groove and programming on opening track "Tevi" giving the producer the space to lay down some impressively emotive melodic arrangements. The opening bars to "Tebe Nujno Vernutsya" hint that the production is heading for a weird place, yet there's a smart switch up that takes proceedings into bumping raw house with some smart vocal edits. Face down "Inache" finds Nikitin indulging in some gritty dub house whilst "Ostavim" comes from the Gerry Read school of thumping house tools.

Review: Debutant producer Takashi Himeoka is the latest unfamiliar talent to grace the wax that Swiss label RORA puts out, further demonstrating that the label's gift is in digging for fresh sounds devoid of hype. On this EP in particular, the tone is a dusty, jazzy one, as played out through stripped down, hypnotic house music with a seedy underbelly. "Sesshu" sits atop a rounded double bass lick while the beat brushes away with an understated grooviness, both laidback and eminently danceable at the same time. "Ludwg" takes things even deeper, simmering the drums down to a subtle murmur and letting atmospheric touches of piano chord and gentle hum shape out an eerie, Lynchian sound world.

Review: Riding high after the blanket success of his album, Daniel Avery is back on Phantasy Sound once again with some dangerous remixes from his album. Audion returns Avery's previous remix favour with the messy mind games of "Need Electric", which find Matthew Dear's alias reaching a previous peak of dark and freaky sound design fit for the more deviant dancers. Matt Walsh takes on "Free Floating" with a curiously dualistic interpretation that flits between sweet natured piano chords and off key acid paranoia, all set to a slow and immersive thud of understated drums.